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Buying from a rental fleet

7K views 65 replies 33 participants last post by  old greybeard 
#1 ·
Does it seem sketchy to buy a 2019 sv 4x4 from an avis rental fleet? 2019, less than 15,000 miles.

Obviously would get it inspected, but if the inspection comes back clean what could go wrong in that amount of miles that should make me wary of purchasing it?
 
#4 ·
bought a similar truck in late January- sv with plastic drop and n bed liner ( I actually prefer it to spray in) and tow package. Not even a outside temp gauge but no big deal. Got a good deal I think -2019 with 15k miles for 22700. 4wd. Got a good trade $ on my accord too. No issues but I owned a 2012 years ago, these trucks are solid. One that new can’t be that beat up.
 
#5 ·
Agree. So many I was finding were from rental companies. They went quickly. Four times I lined up test drives and the truck sold before I got there. None of the ones I looked at were older than 2018 and none had more than 50,000 miles. lucked out with a SV that had been upgraded to basically a SL and 13800 miles.
 
#6 ·
Everyone I know who has bought one has been pleased. They make their money on the rentals and are gone by that mileage. My friend just got a Jeep JL from Enterprise and it’s in perfect shape.

Clint
 
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#34 ·
Everyone I know who has bought one has been pleased. They make their money on the rentals and are gone by that mileage. My friend just got a Jeep JL from Enterprise and it’s in perfect shape.

Clint
I got a 2016 crew cab sv with 36000 miles on it 2 yrs ago from Enterprise. It was a rental. It was clean and detailed to perfection.Zero problems.
 
#8 ·
Not exactly the same but I had an Enterprise Chevrolet Cruze and had no issues w/ it that were not endemic to the other Cruze models w/ turbochargers, so I would say go for it, the big fleet guys maintain their vehicles well. I would have no hesitations personally.
 
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#10 ·
Rental vehicles tend to be abused by the people who rent them - But just about any modern vehicle will survive 15-20k miles of abuse and still have some life left in it.
 
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#32 ·
I agree. People drive rentals with the thought of abusing them. Not for me.
 
#11 ·
Just joined forum because I purchased a rental this past weekend. 2019 with 10,000 miles. Was in service for 7 months. My only worry was if somebody rented it to tow some stuff that was too heavy for it but there were no scratches inside the hitch. Dealer let me take it for a few hours so brought it to my garage and went over with fine toothed comb. I couldn't be happier with the purchase.
 
#19 ·
That's why I always get the damage waiver. I went on a camping trip with a rental car. We got blasted by a desert sandstorm overnight and woke up laying in a silt bed in the tent. The car looked like it had factory matte paint. When I returned the car, they didn't even mention it and sent me on my way.

Heck last car I returned, they didn't even inspect it. They sorta squinted at it from inside the store and signed off on it.

Not exactly the same but I had an Enterprise Chevrolet Cruze and had no issues w/ it that were not endemic to the other Cruze models w/ turbochargers, so I would say go for it, the big fleet guys maintain their vehicles well. I would have no hesitations personally.
I think it's more a matter of, the cars are brand new and can tolerate some neglect, and they retire them from the fleet before any problems show up. I once rented a truck for a cross-country trip (there and back) and told them up front that I'd be racking on 4,000 miles. The truck I got dinged for an oil change a thousand miles into the trip. I called up Enterprise and asked if I should stop somewhere to change vehicles, and they said to keep on trucking, and they'd have no problem with me running 3,000 miles over. I returned the truck without incident.

Lease vehicles are ok. Rentals I’d avoid. Any vehicle I rent I beat.
Same here. My preferred used vehicles to buy are lease returns. Typically all the rattles and other incidental problems are taken care of by the lessee since they are paying X amount of dollars for X brand new vehicle, and want it to be flawless.

Abuse is a very subjective concept. Using the power of the engine to accelerate briskly, and stinking the brakes hard to stop quickly is not what I would consider abuse. I’ve driven my 2012 hard for 82000 miles and she still purrs like a kitten.


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I agree. Revving the engine to redline regularly isn't gonna hurt anything. Heck on track, the drivers pretty much hold the cars at redline, and we are using regular street engines. On that note, I would prefer the used vehicle that ran 25,000 miles in one year than 8,000 miles in one year. The 25k vehicle was likely all highway miles, while the 8k vehicle drove 3 miles at a time.
 
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#14 ·
Rentals are abused. It's so easy to do. You're in a hurry so you go heavy on the gas and likewise on the brakes. Then when you park, a tap in the front and back makes the chore easy. Rental companies want to turn the car around for the next customer. Only if the car is inoperative does this happen. Otherwise it goes out again. One time I hit a pothole that caused the car to pull to the right. At check in, the car was cleaned and placed in the ready-to-go lot. Many Frontier owners who baby their truck will in a rental situation, drive like their alter ego. It's a human nature kind of thing.
 
#17 ·
Abuse is a very subjective concept.
Haha definitely. I drove straight from the dealership on Saturday to meet my buddy to go mountain biking. He recently bought a brand new Bro-Coma and had it lifted and such. He was breaking my balls for buying the Frontier and took off tearing down a bunch of old logging roads trying to lose me. The stock Frontier hung with that $40k bullshit no problem. I beat on it yesterday too on old forest service roads. That thing took more abuse from me the first two days I owned it than anybody who ever rented it.
 
#18 ·
In 2014 I purchased a lease return Frontier from a somewhat shady dealership in my area. They really push Carfax, report said nothing about lease return, or rental use. l knew it had some touch up paint work. I brought it to a friend to touch up some rock chips, then learned, right bedside was replaced, right doors full of putty, front fender yah, there to! I then learned it can take up to a year for Carfax to be updated. If no insurance payout, no Carfax update. I also found it was a rental in Denver. So I called that Avis office, talked to nice young lady, who informed me the truck was sent out for hail damage, and never returned. Ive had this truck almost 5 yrs, has 101k miles, the right front box mount is all cracked and falling apart, front end noises, ball joints maybe? It runs perfect! Can't gripe anymore than I have!

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#28 ·
Carfax and AutoCheck rely on the shops to "report" the repairs, and a lot don't. I used to do inspections for a large auction, and found very quickly that Carfax and AutoCheck can't be relied on for previous collision information.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a previous rental because of the stuff I saw - paint and body work done under an EZ UP in the back lot, shoddy mechanical repairs, questionable maintenance, etc. Of course, after almost ten years at the auction it has made it almost impossible for me to buy a used vehicle now - I always find something when I check them out. :(
 
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#24 ·
Always buy the insurance, when I had my Dakota, dealer got me a Neon as a rental from Enterprise, I bought the insurance. On the way to pick,up my truck from service, wife slid on ice and hit another car head on with the Neon. How truck took the Neon, i gave the keys to the Enterprise clerk and walked away.

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#25 ·
Last year I went to a funeral, I rental a turbo Regal GS from Hertz, they were out when I got there. Since I'm a Hertz Gold++ member, they gave me a choice of any vehicle. Upgraded to a Challenger, @$@&%#*&#%×$ trans was slipping. Next was a Charger but it was on hold for redelivery. They gave me a choice of an Impala or an E class. I took the E class, in 3 days I put 400 miles on it, 4,000 on the rear tires.

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#29 ·
I’ve purchased five or six cars and trucks from Enterprise over the past 20 years. Never had an issue with any of them. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. They are so much easier to deal with than a regular dealer. Vehicles are priced below dealer prices and come with a one year warranty.
 
#31 ·
Zogg, I had never heard of buying from the rental guys till you said that, so I googled hertz, enterprise, etc to get a feel for the prices versus the local dealer.

no-go here. the price for a frontier crew cab is the same as the local Nissan dealer has used trucks going for.

I didn't even know they did that though. I learned something today
 
#33 ·
Zogg, I had never heard of buying from the rental guys till you said that, so I googled hertz, enterprise, etc to get a feel for the prices versus the local dealer.

no-go here. the price for a frontier crew cab is the same as the local Nissan dealer has used trucks going for.

I didn't even know they did that though. I learned something today
Yea, they’re not great deals, aside from the risk of abuse. Prices are similar to anywhere else.
 
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#36 ·
especially at avis. they actually had higher trim trucks then hertz and enterprise and the prices were the same as those ones so if you got the f150 or frontier from avis, you could get a lariat or pro4x instead of an xl or sv
 
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